Satellite in the geostationary Earth orbit. (Janes)
The US Space Force (USSF) intends to contract manoeuvrable satellites in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) from commercial companies, Colonel Rich Kniseley, senior materiel leader of the service's Commercial Space Office, told reporters on 16 September at the Air & Space Forces Association's (AFA's) Air, Space & Cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
The Commercial Space Office contracts commercial companies to provide services for the US Department of Defense (DoD), many of which duplicate DoD capabilities to ensure greater reliability should its own satellites be disabled in conflict. Rather than purchase, launch, and operate satellites, the Commercial Space Office instead purchases services from already-launched satellites.
Col Kniseley's office administers the proliferated low-Earth orbit (pLEO) contract, which awards commercial providers for services in LEO, including communications, radar target detection, among other roles. GEO service purchases are to be structured along the same lines, Col Kniseley said.
“We'll build the contract similarly, where we're going to be doing more mission areas than just commercial satcom [satellite communications]. It'll be open to other mission areas, such as a potential PNT [position, navigation, and timing] solution [or] weather solution,” Col Kniseley said.
He said he hopes to select awardees for the first GEO services in 2025.
“We've already released the RFI [request for information], so we have a sense of what's out there in industry and where industry is going,” Col Kniseley said.
USSF have already entered into a deal with California-based microsatellite maker Astranis to upgrade their latest commercial GEO microsatellite system, dubbed the Omega, to transmit across military bandwidths. USSF's Space Systems Command (SSC) inked the USD13.2 million contract in September.
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